When you edit an image, you can use the Adjust settings to fine-tune how a layer looks. You can make a layer brighter or darker, increase the contrast, make colors more vivid and much more.

The Adjust settings are available when you edit a layer on a design (layer settings) or a batch image (layer's pill menu).

In this article, we give a brief summary of the purpose of each Adjust setting.

Brightness

Use to make the entire layer lighter or darker.

Decreasing the brightness darkens every pixel by the same amount. The whole layer gets darker with no change to how the light and dark areas relate to each other.
Increasing the brightness lightens every pixel by the same amount, lightening the whole layer.

Image showing the effects of reducing brightness and increasing brightness

Contrast

Use to widen or narrow the difference between light and dark areas on the layer.

Decreasing the contrast makes the light and dark areas get closer. Bright areas get slightly darker and dark areas get slightly lighter, creating a flatter, more washed out look.
Increasing the contrast makes the light and dark areas get farther apart. Bright areas get brighter and dark areas get darker. This gives a punchier, more defined image with more separation between tones.

Image showing the effects of decreasing contrast and increasing contrast

Highlights

Use to darken or brighten the brightest parts of a layer.

Decreasing the highlights darkens only the brightest parts of the layer, dulling overexposed areas without changing shadows and midtones.
Increasing the highlights makes the brightest areas even brighter, without affecting the other parts of the layer.

Shadows

Use to change the darken or lighten the dark areas of an image. It does not affect highlights and midtones.

Decreasing the shadows darkens the darkest parts of a layer even more.
Increasing the shadows brightens the darkest parts of the layer, revealing more detail in those areas.

Note: This option is unrelated to the Shadows and AI Shadows features in Photoroom.

Saturation

Use to control the intensity of the color on the layer. The saturation only affects the colors, not the brightness or darkness of the layer.

Image showing the effects of decreasing the hue and increasing the hue

Decreasing the saturation drains the color intensity towards gray.
Increasing the saturation makes colors more vivid and intense.

Hue

Use to change all of the colors on a layer. Hue is most commonly used for color-correcting product photos, where the photo colors are skewed, for example, if they are slightly too orange or red.

Hue covers a range of colors in sequence: red, orange, yellow,

green, cyan, blue, purple, and then back to red again.

Increasing the Hue moves the pixels forward in the color cycle, for example, it will move blues into purples, and then reds, oranges, yellows and so on.
Decreasing the Hue moves the pixels backward in the color cycle, for example, blues become more cyan, then more green, and so on.

Warmth

Use to make the layer look cooler (more blue) or warmer (more yellow).

Image showing the effects of lighten blend

Decreasing the warmth adds more blue to the pixels to make them look cooler
Increasing the warmth adds more yellows to the pixels, making them look warmer.

Sharpen

Use to enhance or reduce the fine details and edges on the layer. Sharpen is mainly used to recover crispness on a photo that's slightly soft or blurry.

Decrease reduces the contrast at the edges, making them look softer
Increase boosts the contrast at the edges so that they look more crisp and defined.

Opacity

Use to change the transparency of the layer. This is useful when layering design elements and you don't want to fully cover the layer that's underneath. For example, you could use opacity to make a logo layer appear semi-transparent, like a watermark. It then acts as a deterrent to image theft but doesn't distract from your product.

Decreasing the opacity makes the layer more transparent, gradually revealing the layer behind.
Increasing the opacity makes the layer more visible, hiding the layer behind.

Blend

Depending on where you are editing, Blend is either an Adjust option or is a standalone option. It works the same way wherever it appears: it mixes the color of the selected layer with the background layer. There are different options for different types of blending (see below).

To show the effects of blend, we use a black-to-white gradient bar, positioned as a layer over a product photo layer. This makes it easier to see how black, white, and other colors are affected by the different blends.

Normal
No blending. The layer will keep its own colors.
Multiply
Multiplies the colors together. White areas become transparent, black remains black, and all other colors become slightly darker. Good for adding overlays so that what's underneath looks darker.
Darken
Compares each pixel on the layer to the same pixel on the background layer and keeps the darker one. This is useful for graphics with white backgrounds as only the darker areas show through.
Screen
Lightens the layer. Black areas become transparent, white stays white, and other colors become lighter.
Lighten
Compares each pixel on the layer to the same pixel on the background layer and keeps the lighter one. Useful for graphics with black backgrounds as only the lighter areas show through.

Adjustment settings